Got Herpes? Try Prescription4Love

crunchlove.com? a new website catering to those who want to adore more than techcrunch?

can i patent that, like MySpace? that’s patently absurd.

one suspects, however, that a crunchlove.com site would skew towards looking like my engineering college. if you are a gay male, brilliant, but if not, not so much.

maybe _that_ is the answer - the uber-verticalized vertical - ‘CrunchLove.com, for the Fabulous lovers of techcrunch.com.’

Worth a shot - i mean, if websites like myspace manage to thrive, anything is possible.

er, not MySpace. linkedin or whatever loser company patented the social networking stuff.

The idea is very humane and real world initiative - there is only one small irony

ON the site all the couples are Hetero - why not be realistic and display alternative lifestyles couples since they are offering an HIV meeting option

That’s fair, not that heterosexual people don’t have HIV, but point taken on the home page images. Inside the site you can search for same sex relationships though.

I think it was Friendster or sixdegrees.com that tried to patent social networking.

Peter and Nick, see http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....etworking/

Cute.

I can’t help but be nasty (and totally insensitive) enough to wonder if they’ve got a revenue model through prescription pills advertising. And other medical related things that shady companies sell on the Web.

Wow, so I can be diseased and still find love?!? That’s wonderfill!

Very funny idea. If I had a STD, I’d spend my last penny finding a cure!

Easy for any dating site to copy by adding a “conditions” field. Which reminds me…

Mark, the point is for folks with said conditions to have their own dating site.

Wow…

What if someone signs on just to find out who is on there so that they can tell others or see if they are currently dating someone who has something but didn’t tell them?

I know someone who has HIV. With the stigma of HIV still around, what happens if she goes here and then someone hurts here because they find out that she had it while they were with her?

I’m just saying, it sounds like a good idea, but it has its pitfalls.

My first impression was that it’s cool that they are offering a way for people to connect like this. My next impression was that maybe this is just another way of putting people on “hte speshul bus”. I am empathetic to the fact that society does already put people on that bus, but I just think that this makes alienating them more acceptable. Versus Marks idea of simply putting that option as a field on the mainstream sites and giving them the opportunity to *really* feel included. Everybody is sick to some degree, in some way, according to somebody. My illness….yeah, it’s in ma head! Maybe I’m too idealistic.

Marshall,

I’m glad to see you’re a person with some depth of character. This site is indeed an example of how people can use the web for humane and compassionate ends. I can only imagine how painful it must be for a young person to find companionship when they have HIV, diabetes, etc.

Good find. Cuts through the Web 2.0 hype and shows the human side of things.

This is a great idea. I personally go to support groups for people with cancer and diabetes so this is a natural next step.

Strange that nobody has ever thought of a niche site like this before. Great idea!

Marshall

Yeah, that’s right, get all the sick people in one place so that the rest of us can ignore them

A great idea but very less choice to choose from?

Is it April 1st???

I don’t think its a april fools, I just think techcrunch just ran out of original ideas. A simple search on google will show there are large established sites catering to each “dating disease niche” and have been for years. I feel to see what makes this site “web 2.0″ or seperates it from the 1,000 dating sites that get over 500 visitors a day, or the other 80,000 dating sites that get under 500 visitors a day.

It’s not web 2.0

it’s web 2. Uh-Oh

prescription4love is a bad name…sounds too pharmy. i would have called it… blisters.com

Good find. Cuts through the Web 2.0 hype and shows the human side of things.

i’m sure that what the investors were thinking. “You know guys, I’m tired of this cranky-old-white-guy or young-poseur-ahole-owner-of-team-that-folded-like-a-wet-paper-bag backlash stuff. I say we help humanity! Who’s with me?!”

not sure, but it probably went something like that.

on okcupid.com, it suggests if you have STDs, go to match.com.
dating sites are too fragmented.
oh and get out more.

Why do people with CONDITIONS (Hello?) need their own dating site? Why for instance is deafness “a chronic problem” when quite frankly it is not. Showed this site to 5 Deaf friends this morning (am Deaf too), and the reaction was along the lines of OMG, no way, site is embarrassing etc.

I do *not* want commercial sites, who probably know zero about Deaf people (any Deaf people on their board, I seriously doubt it) giving out a message that a) we have a problem - I do not! and b) support for marginalisation.

As a white person, perhaps I should set up a site for Black people, to get over their CHRONIC PROBLEM? See how downright discriminatory and patronising it is?

Such sites actually promote and lend to the theory discrimination and prejudice is okay, and shame on TechCrunch for actually promoting.

i think all you guys have it all wrong.this is not as much a dating site as a friendship site.if you find someone,great.ricky is my son as was keith who died.for 6,7 years we watched as he wasted away,to ashamed to try to meet new friends.i wished we had a site like this.

How niche is too niche? That’s the question here.

I actually thought about developing this type of site many years ago, but it was to be of a broader scope. Also, it wouldn’t have just been for ill people to meet ill people but also “normal” people that were capable of handling the circumstances that can come up in any kind of relationship with someone that has chronic issues.

The issue when I look at the site here is that it appears to be catering to extremely specific yet diverse conditions. There are tons and tons of chronic conditions (despite what some deaf people think, heh) and a great deal of them hinder one’s ability to function socially or make things very difficult for potential companions. Why single out arbitrary problems?

Plus you’d think a site for people with chronic conditions would be more accessible, haha.

Jā

If such a site is going to be launched a) don’t clump disability and illness together, and b) if its friendship you are after, there’s countless such groups on the net *run by people who are ___*.

As a white person, perhaps I should make money out of Black people’s chronic problem of being black, and the fact that racism exists. Let me set up a closed site because all Black people need HELP and can’t possibly cope in a mainstream site, because of rejection and they need to be wrapped in cotton wool. Poor them, I feel so sorry.

See how stupid it reads? That is exactly the message this crappy site is giving.

@Alison: I’m not quite sure how you can compare chronic medical, neuro-psychological, psycological, etc. problems with the fact that a person is “chronically” stuck with the skin he or she is born into.

If you’re offended by the site, well, that’s your own issue so don’t dump it on people that might find the premise a hopeful one. Frankly, if you’re so secure in the fact that you don’t have a problem I don’t see why you’d be getting so bent out of shape about a stupid website. Nobody is going to be looking at it and thinking to themselves, “hmmm…. deaf people have serious issues and are clearly helpless, let’s marginalize them.”

Oh, and FYI, there are quite a few “black” dating sites. I haven’t heard any of my black friends griping over how the mere existence of such sites is just about the man holdin’ them down. So can we lay to rest that incredible leap of logic?

One thing I will agree on is that the site is total crap.

@Patience: I had thought of that as well. It would be fairly twisted to be advertising pharmaceutical products on the site, but I put nothing past phamaceutical companies nor do I have any delusions about the ethics missing on the web and the greed that has come to control it.

@Marshall: I’d love to muse about the mashup possibilities here, but that might not be in such good taste. It’s refreshing to hear you say, “How many online shopping and photosharing applications does the world really need?” Could we expand on that to all the ridiculous services all over the web these days or would that kill this site’s utility?

Jā

Firstly, you clump together illness with disability and assume disability is a bad thing. Your post is loaded with prejudice and assumptions, comments based on a number of premise and says one hell of a lot about you.

Why is e.g. deaf any different from skin colour in terms of difference? Or can’t you see past the label you’ve applied in terms of BROKEN?

(And for information, I more than one disability).

I am trying to knock some sense into people, because it sends out a wrong message. In the same way that a newspaper article might send out the wrong information. Just because we see prejudice around us, doesn’t mean to say we have to ignore it. I am more bothered about this, because until yesterday I respected TechCrunch as a blog, now it has lost my respect.

At the end of the day, I will never use your site and don’t have a “chronic problem(!)” either. Most Deaf people will say the same, and I would be surprised if there’s any registrations.

Black dating sites, yes. But they aren’t run by white people with the premise of being so downright patronising.

There’s a *lot* of similarities between Deaf / Disability / Black / Gay, and perhaps you might like to do some research around this subject. Ask anyone who is a member of all communities, with direct experience of either, or even academic commentary.

Incidentally, there is already deaf dating sites, which I and others don’t have an issue with. I don’t expect you to see why though, because its blindingly obvious that am talking to some idiot.

Alison et al. I’m sorry that after writing the original post I’ve been out of the discussion for some time. I honestly didn’t notice that deafness was listed on the site (it’s not loading right now, but I’ll take your word for it) and that was a mistake on my part. I fully understand the argument that doing so is not appropriate and would have said so in my original review had I done my job well enough to notice that. I apologize. I really do want to support social justice movements like the disability rights movement and I totally dropped the ball in this case.

Services for people with particular life circumstances are best designed by people in those positions themselves. I was just glad to get to review a site that aimed to make the world a better place but clearly should have taken a closer look at the way it went about doing so.

I totally agree with Alison and while not seeking to offend, can’t quite believe the ignorance that is being spouted by Ja.

The first thing I thought when I read this was “What a bizarre and offensive combination of ‘conditions’”. Is deafness considered to somehow be contagious? Something which needs to be ‘announced’ to potential partners so that they can appropriately safeguard themselves?

A deaf site run by deaf people is one thing, this is clearly another. A profound lack of understanding of the social model of disability, deaf culture and empathy is clearly being displayed here.

As Alison has tried to point out, Deaf people consider themselves as a cultural group, rather than a ‘medical one’, and therefore being listed along with ’sensitive’ medical conditions is actually quite insulting. Her points about ethnic groups being treated the same way seem to have gone way over some peoples heads.

I am not deaf myself and find this whole idea incredibly offensive, I particularly find the remarks about ‘normal’ people being able to frequent the site if they find themselves ‘capable of handling the circumstances’ ignorant and irritating. Fine if you are talking about people who should be aware of the health risks to themselves if getting invovled with someone living with HIV or Aids, but thinking this kind of attitude is appropriate for deaf people is true ignorance.

Kirsteen

Marshall,

I applaude your effort to try to bring something different and of value to those outside the “web 2.0″ community as well as some of those within I’m sure. It was nice to see here, truly. No harm, no foul… your intentions were good and perhaps with proper feedback this service could turn around a lot of the way it’s constructed and presented. Plus, I believe the next step in creating useful services are making them useful *niche* services so I don’t mind seeing more coverage of those and less of the “novelty” services that abound today.

As far as disabilities and chronic conditions, they’re an overlapping issue. I’ve had Chronic Lyme diease for the better portion of my life (plus I’ve always had massive anxiety disoders amongst other things thanks to my family history) and it has turned into more and more of a disability over the years with each relapse further degrading my day to day functionality.

What’s most frustrating about it is that it’s very expensive to treat properly after a certain time period and doctors are leaned on quite a bit by insurance companies that pretty much pretend it doesn’t exist so they don’t have to pay for proper treatment. By the time we get to a certain age, we’ve become extremely expensive creatures to take care of at which point we’re dumped on the government to waste taxpayer dollars just because insurance companies are too greedy to pay for a one time *proper* treatment in the first place. Instead they spend their money on hiring doctors to take the stance that it doesn’t really exist or go by decades old references, while all modern medical research (along with common sense) shows it to be a very real very serious problem.

Why would anyone here care about any of this? Not really sure, but I’m just using it to put things in perspective. I have a lot bigger fish to fry than what a website may or may not be unintetionally be implying about one certain disability or another by clumping them together. We all have our issues (or non-issues). So I have a disability that significantly reduces my chances of getting a decent job, having a proper social life, getting by on my own, etc. Others with the same disease don’t have the same degree of problems. It’s something that must be dealt with on an individual basis.

That finally brings me back to my original point in my first post, that the disabiliteis and chronic conditions (chronic only means that it generally doesn’t go away and you’re stuck with it) are so incredibly arbitrary that it’s ridiculous. I mean, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Diabetes, Cancer, STDs, Obesity, Recovering Alchoholic, Deafness (which I didn’t notice at first)… there’s no rhyme or reason to why these are singled. It can’t be taken seriously and thus I don’t believe it to be a threat or setback to any rights movement.

@Marshall, perhaps you could get in touch with the Mr. Durham and make sure he’s read this thread. Sometimes owners lack perspective without feedback.

@Alison, you may want to leave them direct feedback and I may do the same.

My main concern is the design seems to be targetting a handful of arbitrary conditions. If they were simply to be removed from the listings that are plastered all over the site and just leave it open as a place for anyone with chronic conditions (or who feel they have chronic conditions that affect their social life) then it wouldn’t offend people and would likely have more of a draw instead of appearing to exclude others.

Thanks for the interesting discussion…

Jā

ps. someone tell them to get a refund from ImageServe, oi.

I’d love to agree to disagree on different elements of this issue and move on, but I have unfortunate issues with being thought of as ignorant.

@K

I totally agree with Alison and while not seeking to offend, can’t quite believe the ignorance that is being spouted by Ja.

I’m not offended, I just hate the feeling of knowing someone out there thinks of me as ignorant. It’s a hang up of mine since my intellect and knowledge are the only things I have left to cling to and even those are crumbling since my memory is shot (and I’m only 28).

I think you’re misinterpreting my stance as a realist as ignorance. I tend to be a realist rather than idealist with most issues. Sometimes I’m just a cynic. None of this means that I’m narrowminded. Perpetual idealists can be extremely narrowminded so the terms really have little to do with each other.

Ignorance can’t be spouted. Maybe it can be espoused but I’m not sure how much of a stretch that is. Sorry, it’s like when I see a lot spelled “alot” and it drives me nuts.

The first thing I thought when I read this was “What a bizarre and offensive combination of ‘conditions’”.

Yes, this was also my first though. See my first post where I say what my main issue is about the specific and arbitrary selection.

Is deafness considered to somehow be contagious? Something which needs to be ‘announced’ to potential partners so that they can appropriately safeguard themselves?

No, but it’s likely to come up sooner or later, don’t you think? Most of the issues on there are not contagious. If it’s just an attribute than how is it any different than “announcing” ethnicity on a dating site. People do have preferences. Lots of people are only attracted to certain ethnicities for example.

A deaf site run by deaf people is one thing, this is clearly another. A profound lack of understanding of the social model of disability, deaf culture and empathy is clearly being displayed here.

As Alison has tried to point out, Deaf people consider themselves as a cultural group, rather than a ‘medical one’, and therefore being listed along with ’sensitive’ medical conditions is actually quite insulting. Her points about ethnic groups being treated the same way seem to have gone way over some peoples heads.

Not everyone is an expert on such subcultures and it was poorly explained by Alison. Without context, the comparison to black people seemed rooted in exagerration lacking much logic. Cultural group… medical group… how about we just say biological group and call it a day? It’s rather blanket statement to say deaf people and ethnic groups consider themselves cultural groups. I’ll let you slide on that one without resorting to accusations of ignorance since I assume you mean “most” or “a large population of.” In any case, thank you for the clarification on what she was referring to

I am not deaf myself and find this whole idea incredibly offensive, I particularly find the remarks about ‘normal’ people being able to frequent the site if they find themselves ‘capable of handling the circumstances’ ignorant and irritating. Fine if you are talking about people who should be aware of the health risks to themselves if getting invovled with someone living with HIV or Aids, but thinking this kind of attitude is appropriate for deaf people is true ignorance.

“Normal” was in quotes for a reason and the whole idea of that statement will take a bit of explaining but I’ll give you an example:

I got involved with a girl named Mary. I was very straightforward about my issues but she was less forthcoming about the fact that her low bloodpressure often caused her to pass out pretty much anywhere. I found out quickly but she downplayed it as something that wasn’t a real issue. Unfortunately it was and it quickly became my role to take care of her, spend hours every day doing the trips back and forth to school since her condition made it impossible to drive, and remain vigilant at all times so I could catch when she did start to pass out so that she didn’t crack her head on anything. I didn’t mind doing any of that. The issues arose when I started having another bout of sickness (which could last quite a while and effectively knock me out of life for a year or so completely each time). I couldn’t do all the things I had been doing for her, the relationship became very strained, and at that point I really could have used someone to take care of me instead of vice versa. Things didn’t last much longer.

Other relationships ended due to the fact that my gf couldn’t handle how I got when I was sick. I know what I’m capable of handling and not handling in relationships as well as other aspects of life. Sometimes just putting ill people together is a bad idea. I am by nature a terribly hopeless romantic but even I have to hold back at times because of the incredible impracticality of some situations. The person that understands me the best in the world also has virtually identical symptoms and though we’ve always had this thing how would it have ever worked out when neither of us have the energy levels to do much of anything regularly and aren’t capable of of having the day to day functionality to hold down regular jobs so can’t earn enough to pay our medical bills let alone other costs of living?

Some people don’t want to deal with any complications period, while others may be more capable of handling and even subconciously attracted to people with issues that strongly affect their daily lives. I don’t see any reason to exclude these people from the community, especially if they have intimate knowledge/experience with certain issues. Does that explain it better or is it still insulting and ignorant?

As for the HIV/AIDS risk and disclaimer thing I don’t see how that should be singled out. Any type of issue that severely affects day to day life I think people should be very straightforward about from the outset. Again, to go back to the Lyme… women with Chronic Lyme will, in giving birth, pass it on to their children. However, even most women with Lyme don’t know this. It’s important to take many factors into account.

This is why I believe having a larger group for people that consider their problems to be chronic and serious enough to affect a relationship or even the chance of meeting someone would be effective instead of singling out an arbitrary bunch of groups.

It wouldn’t be just lopping people together into one category either. Deaf people for deaf people makes sense, whereas a group of Lymies for Lymies would be disasterous. See what I’m saying?

I apologize for the huge post and spamming the board with this little discussion but I had no way of responding to Kirsteen otherwise.

My suggestion is that if we’d like to continue this discussion, we take it to a different venue. I can be contacted via the contact me form in the about section of my blog (click on my name). Then we can discuss via email or in a more appropriate forum.

Again, apologies Marshall. Keep up the thought provoking articles though!

Ignorance would be bliss,

Jā

Hi
I appreciate your long response, and if nothing this discussion has raised some issues and highlighted them.

When I refered to Deaf people, I am talking about ALL Deaf people considering themselves to be of a cultural and linguistic group, rather than a disabled one. This is due to the fact that using a capital D actually denotes those deaf people who are sign language users, quite often born deaf and into deaf families, or have associated with the Deaf community during life.

deaf with a small d usually refers to the larger group of deaf/hearing impaired/hard of hearing people out there. Many of this larger group might consider themselves disabled, particularly those with acquired hearing loss. I hope that clarifies my ‘generalisation’ in my last post.

From reading your post, I can see that you are willing to come to grips with the issues that Alison raised, so I think there is little point with us arguing for the sake of it. The problem here, and the reason the response was so intense is that this is a debate which has been raging for years in the Deaf world, and our Deaf community has fought long and hard to be recognised as a cultural and linguistic group.

Within the wider disability area we moved away from a medical model decades ago! We now use a social model, which concentrates on barriers in the environment for individuals, rather than on particular disabilities/conditions.

I think this is the reason for the fervour of replies - these are battles we thought were won a long time ago, but sadly they have only been won on paper, and general awareness is such that it can be depressing to bump against.

Btw, many thanks for correcting my English

Kirsteen

Wow, so many people with an opinion. How about wishing this person good luck with their website and maybe filling a much needed niche market. If it helps any of the people who register on the site, even one then they have succeeded. Why do we have to pull every decent idea apart. Even the non disabled have handicaps..phobias which stop them from leading normal lives. Come on guys, make the world a better place and applaud people who develop sites like this one. Start going after the Myspace corporation type websites who are not protecting the people who use their services…especially protection against pedophiles etc.

I remember going to a chat room once where people just went to vent. There was yelling and screaming and I thought eeeeek. But you know what I had a choice, complain and stay or just get out and find something more to my liking. So for most of you who have posted, you all have an opinion but I am sure that you do not suffer from a handicap or mental condition or have had to use the run of the mill dating sites where most people are looking for someone perfect.

My two cents worth

Hello Everyone,

Glad to see some interest in my website.
Below is my press release.
Followed by a letter explaining why this website was developed.

Prescription4Love.Com is an online dating service specializing in special health conditions, Cancer, Diabetes, IBS, Obesity, Deafness, Allergies, Hepatitis, Infertility/Impotence, etc., including STD conditions. These days, many people are seeking others online and consequently, specialized alternative dating services have emerged. Dating with an STD can be awkward, especially when it comes time to divulge your situation, so an online service such as Prescription4Love.com is there to help. According to Ricky Durham the President of Prescription4Love.com, “Finding others with similar circumstances is a natural desire for everyone. Honesty is important, but finding an opportunity to mention such subjects can be difficult. By using Prescription4Love.com, you can be honest in advance and progress to the next stages of friendships and relationships.” Prescription4Love.com plans to be a free service for a limited time to build its customer base. At that time, new users will be offered a low monthly fee, a portion of which will be given to a charity for each condition.

###

This website was thought up several years ago because my brother had Crohns Disease (under IBS). At times he could weigh between 75 lb. to 125 lb. He also had a Colostomy Bag. It was hard for him to disclose his disease to anyone. But it was really hard for him to tell someone he had a colostomy bag, when do you tell someone that you want to date that you have a colostomy bag….. the first time you meet, the first date, the second? So I thought if he met someone at a website where everyone had the same condition there would be nothing to disclose.

He passed away July 15, 2004,(http://www.mem.com/display/biography.asp?ID=517377) back then the website was in the developmental stage but he liked the idea.

As we were developing the website it came to my attention the different people around me who had different conditions that might want to use my website for friendship or love. We put in 11 conditions to start, thinking we could add more later. Some of the conditions were added just because I knew someone who had that condition, and maybe their diet led me to add them. Another friend was deaf and suggested that also should be added to the website.

Its just an idea thought up for people who had certain conditions to better their lives through friendship or love.

Ricky Durham

bring troops home!

Everyone:

Check out this google video on Herpes.

http://video.google.com/videop.....&hl=en

Cool

i have been single for 13 years and since i gave my heart to jesus i always have prayed for a healing and have prayed for other people and seen them healed of course not of that but other things, anyway he just might want me to marry someone with herpes and then he will heal both of us.

I came across the site a while back and had a glance at it myself. An interesting concept and something a little different - lumping all those conditions together. I tried to look at it objectively but in all honesty, it just didn’t feel right to me; and I found the ‘prescription’ name tag a bit corny.

I run a few forums and have developed a few sites myself. The major one being Living Sphere - an info and support site for people living with the herpes virus. A dating service was not in the original plan, but it became obvious that it was a service that people wanted, so we ended up including it, however, it is definitely not the main focus of the site.

During the early trial phase we asked members if they thought we should expand the site or the service to include other STIs, and the members were unanimous - keep it limited to herpes. They suggested if we wanted to cover HPV, that should be a separate site and service; ditto with any other STI.

It has worked well for us, and to be honest, I am happy to specialise in herpes - it’s the STI I know best because I have it myself. I’m well aware of all the issues and implications of having this particular incurable virus; I am motivated to help others with herpes; and I am passionate about promoting herpes awareness.

I believe that a site created by people with ‘X’ for people with ‘X’ will always work the best. But that is just MHO.

As Patsy suggested - if it helps one person (well a ‘couple’ of people get together) it has succeeded.

So good luck to you Ricky!

Jeannie

Niche dating sites suffer from the very thing that they seek to attract: targeted audiences. You won’t get as many people on a dating site that caters to knitting fanatics as you would on a general site, such as http://www.positivesingles.com/i/520.

That’s part of the attraction, though, isn’t it? You don’t have to suffer through the process of sorting out those that don’t share the same interests or demographic. I’ve just recently completed a couple of reviews for our new STD dating section. After reading the stats on some of the diseases, such as up to 2/3rds of the public have Chlamydia but may not know it, I’m surprised we’re not all on STD sites! The best one I’ve seen so far is http://www.positivesingles.com/i/520. What surprised me most was the number of members with profile photos. Obviously you need to post a photo for this whole “online dating thing” to work as it should. And although STD’s are a reality these days for a large percentage of the public, I was still amazed that this site actually had that many members who a) appeared real and b) were open about their STDs. Anyway, whatever your affliction happens to be, if you’re looking for love with some strings attached, this may be a great place to start!

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